Decline In Energy Intensity Research Articles

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from China's cities: Case study of Suzhou

Knowledge of the factors driving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cities is crucial to mitigating China's anthropogenic emissions. In this paper, the main drivers increasing GHG emissions from the Chinese city of Suzhou between 2005 and 2010 were identified and quantitatively analyzed using the Kaya identity and the log-mean Divisia index method. We found that economy and population were the major drivers of GHG emissions in Suzhou, having contributed 162.20% and 109.04%, respectively, to the increase in emissions. A decline in carbon intensity, which was caused by the declining energy intensity and an adjustment to the mixture of power and industrial structures, was the major determinant and accounted for a reduction of 171.24% in GHG emissions. Slowing and maintaining healthy growth rates of economy and population could be the primary and most effective means if Suzhou tries to curb the total emissions over the short term. It may be more realistic for Suzhou to control emissions by optimizing the economic structure for low-carbon industrial development because of the city's relative high energy requirements and low potential to mitigate GHGs by adjusting the energy mixture.

Government control or low carbon lifestyle? – Analysis and application of a novel selective-constrained energy-saving and emission-reduction dynamic evolution system

This paper explores a novel selective-constrained energy-saving and emission-reduction (ESER) dynamic evolution system, analyzing the impact of cost of conserved energy (CCE), government control, low carbon lifestyle and investment in new technology of ESER on energy intensity and economic growth. Based on artificial neural network, the quantitative coefficients of the actual system are identified. Taking the real situation in China for instance, an empirical study is undertaken by adjusting the parameters of the actual system. The dynamic evolution behavior of energy intensity and economic growth in reality are observed, with the results in perfect agreement with actual situation. The research shows that the introduction of CCE into ESER system will have certain restrictive effect on energy intensity in the earlier period. However, with the further development of the actual system, carbon emissions could be better controlled and energy intensity would decline. In the long run, the impacts of CCE on economic growth are positive. Government control and low carbon lifestyle play a decisive role in controlling ESER system and declining energy intensity. But the influence of government control on economic growth should be considered at the same time and the controlling effect of low carbon lifestyle on energy intensity should be strengthened gradually, while the investment in new technology of ESER can be neglected. Two different cases of ESER are proposed after a comprehensive analysis. The relations between variables and constraint conditions in the ESER system are harmonized remarkably. A better solution to carry out ESER is put forward at last, with numerical simulations being carried out to demonstrate the results.

Russian energy efficiency accounting system

This paper was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of energy efficiency policies recently launched in the Russian Federation. Pilot applications in 2011–2013 of the energy efficiency and energy savings accounting system in Russia and energy consumption growth decomposition analysis developed in this paper have shown that (1) its creation is possible even when using a noncomprehensive statistical database; (2) its application provides nontrivial results and shows that the impressive GDP energy intensity decline in the period 2000–2012 was mostly (to 64 %) driven by structural and other factors with limited contribution of technological ones failing to bridge the technological gap with advanced economies. Facing slowing economic growth in years to come, the federal policy to improve energy efficiency is to be focused on providing incentives for more dynamic penetration of energy-efficient technologies to improve the Russian economy, competitiveness, and energy security.

China's energy consumption change from 1987 to 2007: A multi-regional structural decomposition analysis

Increasing use of energy has helped to stimulate China's economy. Despite central planning, China has great differences in economic development, energy endowment and energy consumption across its regions. This paper uses the structural decomposition approach to uncover the regional disparities in energy consumption from 1987 to 2007. We also examine six possible key factors for the change in energy consumption by region. We find that final demand change outpaced efficiency improvements to drive up energy use in all regions between 1987 and 2007. More surprisingly, from 2002 to 2007, it appears that changes in production structure enhanced energy consumption in most regions. China produced more energy-intensive goods for capital investment and export. We contend that improving the energy efficiency of key energy-intensive sectors would lead a significant decline in energy intensity. Energy, directly or indirectly, is flowing from Northwest, Central and North China to coastal regions. Regional-specific policies should be designed to promote production structure change and curb energy demand.

Energy intensity, target level of energy intensity, and room for improvement in energy intensity: An application to the study of regions in the EU

While the previous literature shows that a decline in energy intensity represents an improvement in energy use efficiency, it does not provide a target level of energy intensity, nor what room for improvement in terms of energy intensity could entail. This study establishes an indicator of such room for improvement in terms of energy intensity by measuring the difference between the target level of energy intensity and the actual energy intensity and thereby monitors energy use efficiency. The traditional indicator of energy intensity, defined as energy use over GDP, mainly estimates energy use efficiency, but is a partial effect between the energy input and GDP output. However, our proposed indicator of the room for improvement in terms of energy intensity is the total-factor effects based on the multiple-inputs model. By taking the 27 EU members to investigate their energy use efficiency using the indicator of the room for improvement in terms of energy intensity, this study concludes that an improvement in energy intensity does not fully depend on a decline in energy intensity, and we instead need to confirm whether the room for improvement in terms of energy intensity decreases. This finding is particularly relevant for energy policy-makers.

Revisiting drivers of energy intensity in China during 1997–2007: A structural decomposition analysis

The decline of China's energy intensity slowed since 2000. During 2002–2005 it actually increased, reversing the long-term trend. Therefore, it is important to identify drivers of the fluctuation of energy intensity. We use input–output structural decomposition analysis to investigate the contributions of changes in energy mix, sectoral energy efficiency, production structure, final demand structure, and final demand category composition to China's energy intensity fluctuation during 1997–2007. We include household energy consumption in the study by closing the input–output model with respect to households. Results show that sectoral energy efficiency improvements contribute the most to the energy intensity decline during 1997–2007. The increase in China's energy intensity during 2002–2007 is instead explained by changes in final demand composition and production structure. Changes in final demand composition are mainly due to increasing share of exports, while changes in production structure mainly arise from the shift of Chinese economy to more energy-intensive industries. Changes in energy mix and final demand structure contribute little to China's energy intensity fluctuation. From the consumption perspective, growing exports of energy-intensive products and increasing infrastructure demands explain the majority of energy intensity increase during 2002–2007.

Analysis of Key Drivers on China's Carbon Emissions and Policy Rethinking Based on LMDI: 1995–2010

Economic policy and energy policy are two major factors of energy consumption and carbon emissions. The economic factor is external and energy supply structure and efficiency are intrinsic factors. Based on a carbon emissions completely decomposed analysis model, the logarithmic mean Divisia Index (LMDI) system analyzes the impact of carbon emission changes and the contribution rate in China from 1995 to 2010. The decomposition factors include four parts: economies of scale, structure effect, energy intensity effect and carbon intensity effects. Model results show that the contribution rate of the four effects is different and from 1995 to 2010 the greatest factors impacting increases in carbon emissions were economic development (contribution rate of 155%) and industrial structure change (contribution rate of 10.6%). The reduction in carbon emissions was mainly the result of a decline in energy intensity (contribution rate of -63.7%). The increase in carbon emissions in recent years is the result of changes in major economies of scale with 168.2% contribution rate, changes in carbon intensity (contribution rate of 4%) and industrial restructuring (contribution rate of 1.3%) have also contributed to increasing carbon emissions. Energy intensity declined only played a role in reducing carbon emissions (contribution rate -73.5%). These results suggest that China needs to rethink industrial policy and energy development measures, strengthen future energy saving and emission mitigation policies and strengthen investment in low—carbon energy technologies and policy support.

Energy efficiency potentials for global climate change mitigation

Energy efficiency is one of the main options for mitigating climate change. An accurate representation of various mechanisms of energy efficiency is vital for the assessment of its realistic potential. Results of a questionnaire show that the EMF27 models collectively represent known channels of energy efficiency reasonably well, addressing issues of energy efficiency barriers and rebound effects. The majority of models, including general equilibrium models, have an explicit end-use representation for the transportation sector. All participating partial equilibrium models have some capability of reflecting the actual market behavior of consumers and firms. The EMF27 results show that energy intensity declines faster under climate policy than under a baseline scenario. With a climate policy roughly consistent with a global warming of two degrees, the median annual improvement rate of energy intensity for 2010–2030 reaches 2.3 % per year [with a full model range of 1.3–2.9 %/yr], much faster than the historical rate of 1.3 % per year. The improvement rate increases further if technology is constrained. The results suggest that the target of the United Nations’ “Sustainable Energy for All” initiative is consistent with the 2-degree climate change target, as long as there are no technology constraints. The rate of energy intensity decline varies significantly across models, with larger variations at the regional and sectoral levels. Decomposition of the transportation sector down to a service level for a subset of models reveals that to achieve energy efficiency, a general equilibrium model tends to reduce service demands while partial equilibrium models favor technical substitution.

Changing energy intensity of economies in the world and its decomposition

This paper decomposes energy intensity change across countries into five components attributable to technological catch-up, technological progress and changes in capital–energy ratio, labor–energy ratio and output structure. It is found that (1) technological progress, capital accumulation and output structure change contributed to the decline of energy intensity from 1980 to 2010, (2) changes in labor–energy ratio drove up energy intensity, and (3) spatial and temporal heterogeneity existed regarding relative importance of the five components.

APEC's greener energy outlook

The APEC member economies combined accounts for more than 50% of the world's GDP and consume almost 60% of the world's energy. Under the 2011 Honolulu Declaration, APEC Leaders have set an aspirational goal to reduce APEC's aggregate energy intensity by 45 percent by 2035, compared to 2005 levels. This article summarises the results from an APEC-wide study on APEC energy demand and supply outlook from 2010 to 2035. Our business-as-usual projections show that by 2035, APEC energy demand will have increased by 40% of 2010 levels. We also found that historical trends for declining energy intensity will continue and that APEC will likely achieve its aspirational intensity reduction goal. However, our results also suggest that CO2 emissions will continue to rise and energy security will become less assured. Recognizing these vulnerabilities, APEC has already initiated a broad range of activities to achieve its 'green growth' objectives. While these have been fairly successful in guiding APEC economies towards a path of more sustainable development, these efforts will need to be intensified further to avoid serious environmental degradation.

THE SPATIOTEMPORAL EVOLUTION OF U.S. CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS: STYLIZED FACTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE POLICY

ABSTRACTWe characterize the evolution of U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using an index number decomposition technique which partitions the 1963–2008 growth of states’ energy‐related CO2 into changes in five driving factors: the emission intensity of energy use, the energy intensity of economic activity, the composition of states’ output, per capita income and population. Compositional change and declining energy intensity attenuate emissions growth, but their impacts are offset by increasing population and income. Despite absolute interstate divergence in both emissions and their precursors, states’ emission‐ and energy intensities—and ultimately, CO2—appear to be stochastically converging. We assess the implications of these trends using a novel vector autoregression (VAR) emission forecasting technique based on our index numbers. The resulting emission projections are comparable to, but generally exceed, those forecast by the 2010 EIA Annual Energy Outlook.

Main Player in Industrial Carbon Emissions in China

The carbon emissionshas attracts great concerns in engineering technology researches. The decomposition analysis technology has been popular in the study on influencing factors of industrial carbon emissions(ICE). The change of industries’s CO 2 emissions from the three main industries in China over the period 1980-2011 based on the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) method has been carried out. The research indicated that economic activity effect was the main influence factor for ICE increase in China over the entire period; the decline in energy intensity and the adjustment of energy and change in the CO 2 emission coefficient were major determinants for reduction of ICE. Meanwhile, we found that China had made a significant contribution to reducing global CO 2 emissions by decreasing its energy intensity. Based on the fore study, the mechanism of CO 2 emission changes has been analyzed and the pressure-driven environment protection model has been put forward. http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i5.2484

Factor Analysis of Evolution of Russian Energy Efficiency: Methodology and Outcomes

Пилотная эксплуатация системы учета повышения энергоэффективности и экономии энергии в России показала, что: 1) ее создание возможно даже на базе не самой совершенной статистики; 2) ее использование дает нетривиальные результаты; 3) она требует дальнейшего развития. Снижение энергоемкости ВВП России в 2000—2010 гг. на 80% определялось структурными сдвигами в экономике. При замедлении экономического роста вклад структурных факторов будет снижаться, поэтому для решения задачи снижения энергоемкости ВВП на 40% к 2020 г. федеральная политика должна быть нацелена на ускоренное внедрение новых энергоэффективных технологий, сокращение технологического разрыва с ведущими странами для повышения конкурентоспособности российской экономики и обеспечения ее экономической и энергетической безопасности.

Energy intensity and investment ownership across Chinese provinces

The main objective of this paper is to investigate whether openness and investment ownership are key factors in explaining the diffusion of energy-saving technologies in China. Compared with previous studies, the novel aspect of this work is the use of a rich dataset at provincial level, which allows the high level of regional heterogeneity to be taken into consideration. The unbalanced regional growth has been translated into differences in the need for energy resources across the vast territory of China. A detailed analysis of these issues may provide new insights into the energy situation in this country. The analysis is also disaggregated by type of energy: coal, electricity and petroleum. We estimate the models by panel-corrected standard errors, developed by Beck and Katz (1995), over the period 1985–2008. Results obtained confirm the hypothesis that both foreign and non-state investments play a leading role in the decline of energy intensity across Chinese regions, whereas there is no evidence of a positive contribution of state investment. The findings also reveal differences in energy intensity across regions, thus confirming the importance of accounting for the regional dimension when analyzing energy consumption in China.

The Real Future of the Media

When George Orwell encountered ideas of a technological utopia sixty-five years ago, he acted the grumpy middle-aged man: Reading recently a batch of rather shallowly optimistic “progressive” books, I was struck by the automatic way in which people go on repeating certain phrases which were fashionable before 1914. Two great favourites are “the abolition of distance” and “the disappearance of frontiers”. I do not know how often I have met with the statements that “the aeroplane and the radio have abolished distance” and “all parts of the world are now interdependent” (1944).

An analysis of trends in passenger and freight transport energy consumption in India

This primary objective of this paper is to examine the causes for the change in energy consumption in the transport sector in India. The pattern of energy consumption and their causes for change are benchmarked against select countries. A mathematical model that decomposes changes in energy consumption to various factors has been used. The changes in the energy consumption are attributed to growth in transport volume, structural change or modal shift, and energy intensity. The analysis is conducted for passenger and freight transport separately. Results indicate that the growth in transport volume has been the main cause for increase in energy consumption for both passenger and freight transport in India despite the decline in energy intensity of various transport modes. Though not surprising for a growing economy like India, this poses a challenge for the future. Currently, India is a low carbon economy.However, the choices that the economy is making, as it is growing, are towards energy intensive options particularly in transportation and building sectors. There is a need for policy framework to steer the economy towards making appropriate choices that are environmentally sustainable and also do not jeopardize economic growth aspirations. In case of passenger transport, the trend is comparable with other countries studied in this paper (US, Canada, China, Japan, UK) except France. For freight transport, the contribution of the increase in transport volume to changes in energy consumption is far higher in India than that amongst the countries compared, though all countries except Japan have shown a positive contribution of increase in volume to the changes in energy consumption. The large contribution of the transport volume to the changes in passenger transport energy consumption is due to increasing shift towards personalized modes of transport (such as cars, two wheelers) in India and decrease in passenger occupancy per vehicle. The growth in freight transport energy consumption is a reflection of the high growth of the economy. The problem, however, is that a large part of freight is transported using road unlike that in some other benchmarked countries. Future policies aimed at containing energy consumption in the transport sector would need to focus on the modal structure which would require more use of rail for transportation of freight and public transportation systems for passenger transport. This would, however, require huge inefficiencies to be overcome before consumer choice shifts towards rail or public transportation system.

Structural decomposition analysis on China’s energy intensity change for 1987–2005

There has been considerable debate about the major factors responsible for the dramatic decline of China’s energy intensity in the 1980s and 1990s. However, few detailed analysis has been done to explain the fluctuation in energy intensity during 2002–2005. In this paper, we use the structural decomposition analysis (SDA) to decompose energy intensity into five determining factors: Energy input coefficient, technology coefficient (Leontief inverse coefficient), final demands structure by product, final demands by category and final energy consumption coefficient. We then further decompose two coefficients, energy input coefficient and technology coefficient, into structure and real coefficient. Empirical study is carried out based on the energy-input-output tables from 1987 to 2005 in 2000 constant price. The results show that between 1987 and 2002, energy input structure accounts for most of the decline in energy intensity. However, the input structure and final demands structure by product explain the increase of the energy intensity between 2002 and 2005.

Laspeyres Decomposition of Energy Intensity in Hebei Province

The method of Laspeyres index was used to decompose changes in energy intensity of Hebei province over the period 2005-2009. The results indicate that the technological effect has been the major factor causing the reduction of the energy intensity. The contribution of the technological progress accounts for as much as 92%, 99.11%, 72% at the area level, industry level and sub-sector level respectively. While the structural effect has also played a positive but a very minor role on the decline of energy intensity. Therefore, the main approaches to reducing energy intensity in Hebei province are to increase in R&D investment for promoting technology progress, accelerate the structure adjustment, attach great importance to the structural shift towards less energy-intensive subsectors, and enhance the supervision over important prefectures including such areas as Tangshan, Handan.

Indigenous R&D, Technology Imports and Energy Consumption Intensity: Evidence from Industrial Sectors in China

This paper empirically analyzes the effect of the indigenous R&D, introduction of technology on the energy consumption intensity in China, based on a panel of 31 industrial sectors for 1998–2006.The results show that indigenous R&D contributes to a significant decline of energy intensity in high energy-consuming intensity group and 31 industrial sectors,and has no significant effects on energy consumption intensity in low energy-consuming intensity group. Foreign technology purchased has a significant negative influence on energy consumption intensity only in 31 industrial sectors. Domestic technology transfer has no significant impact on energy consumption intensity in all samples. This paper will interest those policy makers and industrial entrepreneurs who are willing to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector.

Energy Intensity of Indian Manufacturing Firms

The energy intensity of Indian manufacturing has declined signifi cantly since 1992. Between 1992–93 and 2007–08, it fell by about 50 per cent. However, it seems, there is scope for further substantial decline in energy intensity, since industrial energy consumption data across states indicate signifi cant inter-plant variation in the energy intensity of energy-intensive industries. The paper examines the factors that infl uence energy intensity in Indian industries. The results of the analysis indicate that the post-1992 decline in energy intensity of Indian manufacturing is attributable mostly to an improvement in energy use efficiency of energy-intensive industries, which in turn may be traced in part to hikes in the real price of energy paid by manufacturing fi rms. The results also show a signifi cant impact of technological change on energy intensity and presence of energy efficiency spillover effects from foreign fi rms to local firms.